The Gameplay Mechanic: Fixing Sonic

Share.

SEGA's had plenty of chances to make a great game for the Hedgehog. Now it's our turn.

By Kaiser Hwang

Few game characters can withstand the test of time, holding relevance in a market where players' taste can shift as easily as the wind blows. Nintendo mascots, particularly Mario and Zelda, have maintained both critical and commercial viability over the decades due to ingenious game design, and overall smart decisions regarding each games' direction. While some of the corresponding titles have been polarizing for the fans, e.g. Super Mario Sunshine, Zelda: Wind Waker, overall, no one can deny the clout both series have, even in all their standard definition glory. This is one end of the spectrum.

On the other end, we have Sonic the Hedgehog. Like his Nintendo rivals, Sonic has a good amount of commercial power, but rather than appealing to diverse audiences both young and old alike, Sega's most popular character has skewed towards children. Kids like Sonic. Kids buy Sonic games. Kids keep Sonic in business. Unfortunately, the games themselves have been all over the place in terms of quality, from average to wretched, and incorporated puzzling additions, most notably guns. (Technically it was Shadow the Hedgehog with the gun, but who's keeping track...) The real Sonic fans, those who grew up with Sonic and want nothing more than to see the series rise again to be a tier one franchise, are caught in the crossfire of Sega's continued attempts to either a) make a game for kids, or b) reinvent the series in some questionable way (maybe for kids as well).

Remember the good ol' days?

Now, it's fairly apparent that Sega has been trying turn the franchise around to some degree. The Bioware-developed Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood was a step in the right direction for an offshoot, and even the just-released Sonic Unleashed has moments of brilliance in its 2D sections. But the fact remains that the majority of Sonic games that are critically liked are those that essentially recreate the old 16-bit Genesis games. Just take a look at the score averages for the GBA/DS Sonic titles, and the trend becomes clear: people like fast, 2D Sonic games.

So how does one fix Sonic? Well, the truth is, everyone envisions the ideal Sonic game a bit differently, myself included. There's no right or wrong answer here, and there's no guarantee that any ideas on paper will even work out the way they should. With that said, rather than attempt to list a number of ways to change or fix the series, I'd like to present some design concepts I've dreamt about throughout the years. There's no real way to be sure if any of these ideas would even be fun without actually implementing and iterating on them, but I hope it at least makes for an entertaining read. I do want to stress that this is my own personal fantasy Sonic game, so chances are, you'll disagree with some of my ideas. I'd love to hear your own ideas, so feel free to talk about them in the forums.

Question: Who will this Sonic game be made for?Answer: Ideally other gamers like me who look back at Sonic as one of the greatest franchises of my childhood, and one of the worst of my adult life.

Question: What features do you think a Sonic game should have? Answer: To me, every great Sonic game has three things: light combat, vertical exploration, and most importantly, speed.

Question: So, uh, how would you make your Sonic game? Answer: Like this...

Note to Shadow: You're not The Punisher.

Controlling the Speed I think most of you can agree that Sonic games should have a heavy emphasis on speed on some level. In Sonic the Hedgehog (X360, PS3 version), I kept falling off ledges so I had to slow down. In Shadow the Hedgehog, I had to stop to shoot enemies. In Sonic Unleashed, I have to turn into a Werehog at night. In all three cases, I'm having to interrupt my Sonic experience with actions that are, well, lame. What I propose would be this: In addition to 2D segments like those found in Sonic Unleashed, there would be seamless first-person perspective segments. The track/level would then be divided into X number of lanes that I could move into by simply tapping the control pad left or right, with double-taps letting me move two at a time.

Along the path would be rings and power-ups to collect, obstacles to dodge, and light enemies to attack. While simply tapping a direction left or right might sound incredibly simple, keep in mind that the game would be moving at a incredibly fast pace. Think Midnight Club-like speed levels. Successfully capturing rings along the way would then increase my maximum speed, as well as give me a point multiplier at the end of the level (faster time, more points). Conversely, hitting an object would drop my multiplier down a level. Get enough coins, and Sonic will morph into Super Sonic where he gains a speed boost and is invulnerable to any attacks (but not ledge drops).